Volkhard Steude

Volkhard Steude, born in Leipzig in 1971, received his first violin lessons at the age of five at the Conservatory in Cottbus. In 1988 he began his studies at the Hanns Eisler University of Music in Berlin with Joachim Scholz and Professor Werner Scholz. He has won multiple prizes in international competitions. In 1993 he became first concertmaster of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra. From March 1994 he continued his studies with Professor Alfred Staar in Vienna.
In November 1994, at the age of 23, Volkhard Steude won the concertmaster audition at the Vienna State Opera and has been engaged there ever since. In addition to his duties as concertmaster, he also appears as a soloist with the Vienna Philharmonic – of which he has been a member since 1998 – under Giuseppe Sinopoli, Daniel Barenboim, Tugan Sokhiev and Andris Nelsons, among others. Further engagements as a soloist in Europe and Japan include violin concerts by, among others, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Sibelius and Tchaikovsky, some of which were recorded live for radio broadcasts and/or CD releases.
Volkhard Steude plays the ex Smith-Querson violin by Antonius Stradivarius (Cremona 1714), made available to him by the Austrian National Bank.